(The Canadian Press issued the following on July 22.)
MONTREAL — Canadian National Railway Co., Canada’s largest railway company, reported a second-quarter profit of $459 million, down 11 per cent, while revenue rose to $2.1 billion.
The earnings amounted to 95 cents per share and compared with $1.01 per share in the same period last year, when CN reported a profit of $516 million.
Revenue in the year-ago period was $2 billion.
CN earnings beat forecasts of analysts, who had expected second-quarter profit of 87 cents per share.
The company also said yesterday it planned to buy back up to 25 million of its common shares, or 5.3 per cent.
CN’s income took a hit of $25 million, or five cents per diluted share, from the high loonie.
The earnings also included deferred income tax recoveries of $23 million, compared to $30 million last year, as a result of income tax rate reductions.
“Despite the headwinds, we saw double-digit growth in intermodal revenues as a result of new container traffic over the Port of Prince Rupert and continued import strength at the Port of Vancouver, as well as higher volumes of commodities to support oil-sands development,” said chief executive E. Hunter Harrison.
“We are still targeting diluted earnings per share growth in the mid-single-digit range for 2008.”
The revenue gain was due to freight rate increases, of which approximately two-thirds were due to a higher fuel surcharge and increased volumes in specific commodity groups.